An assignment of benefits takes a lot of the hassle out of paying third parties to whom you might owe money after an accident or another event that triggers your insurance coverage. Without an assignment of benefits for your health insurance, for example, your insurance company would pay you and then you would have to pay your medical care provider.
In many cases, the insurance company can get discounts with the health care provider for your care, which means that an assignment of benefits is helpful for everyone in that situation. The insurance company doesn’t have to pay as much, and you don’t have to deal with making sure all of your doctor bills get paid (except for co-pays or coinsurance).
Assigning Benefits in Georgia
Consider another example of assigning benefits in Georgia. Imagine that your house suffers wind damage after a storm. You notify your insurance company of the loss, and they come out to provide a quote for the work that needs to be done. Then, you line up a contractor to come work on your house. The contractor will sometimes have you sign a document that allows him to contact your insurance company directly for payment, which means that you don’t have to pay the contractor out of your own pocket to get reimbursed, and you don’t have to wait to get a check from the insurance company to start work. An assignment of benefits also gives the contractor the right to sue your insurance carrier (instead of you) if it doesn’t pay as well.
An insurance contract will state whether its benefits are assignable. In most cases, they are, but not always. Generally, as long as the loss takes place before the assignment, the assignment will be valid. But, if you try to assign benefits before suffering the damage, it might not be valid. For instance, if you know that a storm is coming, and you tell your friend, who is a contractor, that he can have the insurance benefits from the damage to your house as long as he comes over and fixes it right away, you might have some legal problems.
In those circumstances, the insurance company may have needed to give prior approval before you give away the benefits to your insurance policy. They have less control over how much the bill might be under these circumstances. It’s best to just wait until after the damage has occurred to make any promises regarding your insurance proceeds.
Do you want to learn more about assignment of benefits?
Assignment of benefits comes up most often in the health insurance context in personal injury cases. Is someone requesting that you sign an assignment of benefits? If so, you might want to have the team at John Foy & Associates review it before you make any decisions. We can examine the document with you as part of our case evaluation process. Fill out the form to your right or call us at 404-400-4000 to get your FREE consultation today.